1 TRANSLATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND ... - APFA News

He said that the Royal Government delegation made every effort during the
talks with the ULFA and NDFB leaders to ensure a positive outcome bearing in
mind the importance of avoiding armed conflict and resolving the problem
through peaceful means. To this end, the delegation used all possible strategies
including diplomacy, pressure tactics and even offering of cash incentives for
removing their camps. Holding dialogue and negotiating with the militant
leaders was an extremely difficult process, he said.
The Home Minister reported that implementing the National Assembly
resolution on stopping rations and supplies to the militants had also proved to be
extremely difficult. This was mainly due to the porous and thickly forested 266
kilometer open border Bhutan shared with Assam. However, within Bhutan, the
Royal Government had been taking steps to stop the flow of supplies to the
militants and also to prosecute persons found extending assistance to them.
He said that the shopkeepers in the border town of Kalikhola, Nganglam and
Bhangtar had closed down their shops and decided to move out from these
places to ensure that the militants could not obtain any supplies from them. The
closing of these border towns have caused great economic loss and hardship to
the shopkeepers and tremendous difficulties and problems for the local people
in the nearby areas.
The Minister also informed the house that seven persons against whom there
was concrete evidence of them extending assistance to the militants had been
prosecuted under the National Security Act and the Courts had award life
imprisonment to three of them.
The Speaker called on the Secretary of the National Assembly to read out the
Agreed Minutes of the Talks held between the Royal Government delegation
76